I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the delivery of inventory, and more particularly, to computer implemented methods of building and improving the quality of inventory load configurations.
II. Description
In the manufacturing sector, business concerns produce large numbers of products such as computers, electronics, home appliances and automobiles that must be delivered to another location for either further distribution or retail sale to consumers. These products often are delivered from the manufacturer to their ultimate destination by train, airplane, ship, truck, or some combination thereof, and are generally staged at a terminal as inventory before they are loaded and shipped to their appropriate destinations. In the case of shipping over land by truck, there are computer-implemented methods for building the individual load configurations for each truck from the inventory at a terminal. The existing methods however, typically are accept-or-reject type methods that do not allow one to experiment with different load configurations in order to create higher quality loads. To the extent existing methods do provide the ability to experiment with different load configurations, the facility is quite limited. The existing methods also do not account for geographic areas having high concentrations of inventory to be delivered, the age of the inventory to be delivered, or the number of products in the inventory to be delivered to the same destination when building the loads. Nor do the existing methods provide for any post-initial building improvement of the loads based on load quality criteria such as the total number of odometer miles traveled per load and the number of destinations or stops per load. Finally, the existing methods fail to provide a friendly interface that aids a user in selecting the inventory to be delivered and assessing the quality of load configurations generated by the methods. Accordingly, there is a need for improved methods of building load configurations.
The present invention is directed to methods of building and improving the quality of inventory load configurations, and means of displaying information regarding inventory and the inventory load configurations.
In a computer implemented embodiment of the method for building a plurality of loads from an inventory at a terminal, the method may comprise first designating a portion of the inventory as priority units. Once the priority units have been selected, a current destination seed list is created, wherein the current destination seed list comprises a list of the destinations to which priority units in the current inventory are to be delivered. A current inventory seed list is then created, wherein the current inventory seed list comprises an ordered list of the priority units in the current inventory. A current seed destination is then selected from the current destination seed list, and a current load is built by selecting a current seed unit from the current inventory seed list, and adding priority units to be delivered to the current seed destination from the current inventory to the current load, starting with the current seed unit, until either there are no more priority units to be delivered to the seed destination in the current inventory or the current load is full. The current load is then saved as one of the plurality of loads.
The invention is also embodied in a method for improving the quality of a pair of loads selected from a plurality of loads, wherein the plurality of loads comprises a plurality of units to be delivered from a terminal to a plurality of destinations within a geographic region on a plurality of delivery vehicles, a portion of the plurality of units comprising priority units, and wherein a current inventory comprises the plurality of units less any units that have been added to a temporary load or a rebuilt load pair in a plurality of rebuilt loads. The method comprises the steps of creating a list of candidate load pairs from the plurality of loads, each of the candidate load pairs comprising at least two priority units to be delivered to destinations geographically close to each other. From this list of candidate load pairs, a candidate load pair is selected, the selected candidate load pair comprising a current candidate load pair, and wherein the at least two priority units in the current candidate load pair comprise current candidate priority units. Next, a combined load index is calculated for the current candidate load pair, and then determining which two priority units of the current candidate priority units are to be delivered to destinations geographically furthest from each other, the two priority units comprising a first seed unit and a second seed unit, the destinations to which the first and second seed units are to be delivered comprising a first seed destination and a second seed destination respectively. A rebuilt load pair is then created by assigning the first seed unit to a first temporary load and the second seed unit to a second temporary load; adding the current candidate priority units to be delivered to the first seed destination from the current inventory to the first temporary load until either the first temporary load is full or all of the current candidate priority units to be delivered to the first seed destination have been removed from the current inventory; and adding the current candidate priority units to be delivered to the second seed destination from the current inventory to the second temporary load until either the second temporary load is full or all of the current candidate priority units to be delivered to the second seed destination have been removed from the current inventory. A rebuilt plurality of loads is then created by substituting, in the plurality of loads, the rebuilt load pair for the current candidate load pair.
The present invention may also be embodied in a computer implemented method for improving the mileage quality of a pair of loads selected from a plurality of loads, wherein the plurality of loads comprises a plurality of units to be delivered from a terminal to a plurality of destinations within a geographic region on a plurality of delivery vehicles. The embodiment comprises creating a list of candidate load pairs from the plurality of loads; selecting a candidate load pair from the list of candidate load pairs, the selected candidate load pair comprising a first candidate load and a second candidate, wherein the first and second candidate loads overlap, and wherein there is a first destination on the first candidate load and a second destination on the second candidate load to which the same number of units are to be delivered, the units to be delivered to the first destination comprising first units and the units to be delivered to the second destination comprising second units; swapping the first and second units between the first and second candidate loads, the first candidate load with the second units comprising a first swapped load and the second candidate load with the first units comprising a second swapped load; and saving the first and second swapped loads in the plurality of loads.
The present invention may also be embodied in a computer implemented method for improving the combined number of drops on a load pair selected from a plurality of loads, the plurality of loads comprising a plurality of units to be delivered from a terminal to a plurality of destinations within a geographic region on a plurality of delivery vehicles. The embodiment comprises creating a list of candidate load pairs from the plurality of loads; selecting a candidate load pair from the list of candidate load pairs, the selected candidate load pair comprising a first candidate load and a second candidate load; creating a list of intersection pairs from the selected candidate load pair; selecting an intersection pair from the list of intersection pairs, the selected intersection pair comprising a first intersecting destination and a second intersecting destination, the first and second intersecting destinations lying within an intersection city, wherein the number of units to be delivered to the first intersecting destination is greater than the number of units to be delivered to the second intersecting destination minus a predetermined threshold, and wherein there are a plurality of destinations on the first candidate load, the plurality of destinations on the first candidate load comprising candidate destinations; swapping the units to be delivered to the candidate destinations and the units to be delivered to the second intersecting destination between the first and second candidate loads, the first candidate load with the second intersecting destination units comprising a first swapped load and the second candidate load with the candidate destinations units comprising a second swapped load; and saving the first and second swapped loads in the plurality of loads.
The present invention may also be embodied in a computer implemented method for improving the mileage quality of a load, wherein the load is selected from a plurality of loads, the plurality of loads comprising a first plurality of units to be delivered from a terminal to a first plurality of destinations within a geographic region on a plurality of delivery vehicles. The embodiment comprises: creating a list of seed units from a second plurality of units, the second plurality of units to be delivered to a second plurality of destinations within the geographic region; selecting a current seed unit from the list of seed units; creating a list of promising loads from the plurality of loads; selecting a current promising load from the list of promising loads, wherein the current promising load comprises a best savings load for the current seed unit; creating a sort list from the units comprising the current promising load; selecting a current best savings unit from the sort list; swapping the current best savings unit for the current seed unit on the current promising load, the current promising load with the current best savings unit comprising a current swapped load; and saving the current swapped load in the plurality of loads.
The present invention may also be embodied in a system for building and assessing the quality of loads. Such a system includes a computer; software running on the computer for building the loads from an inventory at a terminal; and an inventory distribution graphical user interface (gui), generated by the software on a display, for viewing inventory distribution information.